What are your guys opinion on the best way to utilize a face cage for sparring, if at all? Im not training for a fight or anything. I use them because my school uses them. its been eye opening to me to say the least. For one thing, my hands aren't up as much as i thought they were :). What is your guys take on it? Anyone have any drills?
I have a big nose thanks to sparring without a face cage...it saves your face...just be aware that u should work on your defense.
You get hit twice as much, and people feel a lot more
at liberty to tee off on you. I avoid them like the
plague.
As said above, when you wear a cage, people tee off on you. If you have somebody that hits hard, you get the shit knocked out of you. I've also seen quite a few broken noses from bar getting slammed into somebody's face.
Your legs will take a beating if you use the "face saver" or other leather headgear types with the bar across the face. The bar that crosses the face to protect your nose totally blocks your vision below your opponents waist line, cant see leg kicks coming. Plus Ive seen people get really wierded out when they have to spar without it, once their used to wearing it.
Ive never used the helmet/cage type, looks to much like a hockey helmet to me.
I dislike all headgear. We usually train without it, just make sure your coach controls the sparring so you dont have a guy forget he's sparring.
I do fine with a normal boxing head gear with cheek protectors.
Headgear is the max protection I ever use. Face cages seem to lead guys to try to go for the gold. When I train for fights often I spar with no head gear but let my partners wear it. Even with the headgear guys seem to think they can "try" harder and they are too rough with attempted contact. You need to feel that head being bare to ever get true confidence with your skills, Sparring IS NOT about landing full power shots and I have seen MANY sparring sessions degenerate rapidly once head gear goes on. I can only fathom that face saver/cage masks would only make the situation even uglier.
I use different headgear for different types of sparring. I feel they reduce the risk of cuts and dissipate the force of the strikes. I use a cheekless headgear for kick-boxing training. The face cage (you mentioned) for nhb and some self-defense drills. Ear guards for grappling, occasionally. I find the face cage useful for delivering knee strikes and ground fighting techniques where the face is targeted. I don't like the way it steams up on me and it gets very hot. The vision can be restricted if you're using the dark plastic cage. I use the one from the Asian World of Martial Arts; it has a clear cage. Black Bart
They dont look cool. What reason is there to do MT if you dont look cool?
we have good control at my school, so people don't wail on each other (erhm, uhh, not because we wear headgear anyhows), but I did a lot of sparring without headgear in the past. As a purist I enjoy going without the headgear more, but my nose prefers me wearing the headgear training as much as I do.
Nose? I have NEVER seen headgear save anyone's nose. As a matter of fact I have seen many a runny red faucet wearing some headgear. I am not against head gear, but even with guys who have good control, they tend to pick it up with the head gear on. I personally dont wrack on people head gear or no, unless they need an "adjustment".
The face saver headgear actually makes it easier to get rattled by a punch. The bar across the chin makes your chin a bigger target and gives your opponent more leverage so that your head wobbles more. It also fucks up your sense of range since the bar gives your opponent a closer target (approximatley 3 inches closer). Stick with regular headgear.
we don't use boxing face-savers, we use headgear with plastic face cages that actually hold up fairly well. We don't have a problem at our school with people going too hard, but the cages let us do elbows and knees lightly without face damage, along with our boxing
My point about people going harder with headgear wanst so much because they just feel the need to hit harder. They feel more "assertive" because they have a false sense of security provided by said headgear. I never said everyone who wears head gear is excessive, but almost without fail they DO pick up the contact when they put it on. Doesnt always mean they go too hard. Make no mistake I dont care if a guy wants to swing for the fences. Just going to make for a pretty short sparring session, and I prefer to get work in and had rather not hurt guys.
This is my personal preference and I think headgear is good in most cases, anything with a face shield I think gives guys a "punch harder to hit better" mentality. Or it makes their defense lax as hell. NEVER have I seen face shields in boxing gym, seen them in several Thai gyms. Guess which guys had the better footwork and general defense and body movement?
Guess what guys look better face wise?
Well Heman, I and none of the guys I know who want to get into the ring or seriously learn to fight are male models. And a broken nose can add character to your face. If you have a job where you are sweating black eyes and such, I can see the face sheild, but you shouldnt be getting busted up like that (accidents can happen) if people have control, wheter you have a windsheild, headgear or spar bare.
Besides I have had more black eyes and facial bruises from grappling than kickboxing/boxing anyway. Peoples damn knees defending guard or passing can be hell. IF you are a male model my reccomendationis to stick with the tae bo.